PHCY602 Prescribing Practicum

A practicum for prescribing; an experiential placement where the pharmacist develops
experience in prescribing under the overarching guidance of a designated medical prescriber.

Are you ready to take your pharmacy career to a new direction? It is an exciting time
to be a pharmacist! Internationally, the role pharmacists can play in patient care
is rapidly expanding, and New Zealand is at the forefront of this. Legislation has
now been passed that allows pharmacists to prescribe, and the numbers of New Zealand
pharmacists registered to prescribe is steadily growing. This innovation is in line
with the Government's commitment to support health practitioners to work to their
full capacity and provide integrated services for patients. The Postgraduate Certificate
in Pharmacist Prescribing (PGCertPharmPres) is designed to prepare pharmacists with
the knowledge, skills and attributes to competently prescribe medicines within a collaborative
healthcare team.

Students must be New Zealand registered pharmacist who are registered in New Zealand
and hold a current position involving patient care and have been awarded
a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy (or equivalent qualification).

Eligibility

The Pharmacy Council of New Zealand lists the following entry requirements for admission
into the programme:

Applicants must hold a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical
Pharmacy or equivalent

Entrants must hold registration in the Pharmacist scope
of practice and hold a current Annual Practising Certificate (APC) issued by PCNZ

Entrants
must have at least two years of recent, appropriate and relevant post-registration
experience within a collaborative health team environment, in a community- or hospital-care-based
setting

Entrants must be able to demonstrate that Competence Standards 1,
2, 4 and 5 of the Pharmacist scope of practice are applicable and part of their current
practice

Entrants should demonstrate how they reflect on their own performance
and take responsibility for their own continuing professional development (CPD)

Entrants
must have identified an area of clinical practice in which to develop their prescribing
skills and have up-to-date clinical, pharmacological and pharmaceutical knowledge
relevant to their intended area of prescribing practice

Entrants must have
identified potential Designated Medical Practitioner(s) to provide supervision, support
and shadowing opportunities

Entrants must have discussed and identified their
possible role(s) as a prescriber within the collaborative health team environment
they intend to practise in prior to commencing the practicum

Entrants must
obtain their manager's approval to undertake the programme to ensure they will be
allocated work time to complete the practicum

The overall philosophy of this paper is practice-based, self-directed learning under
the supervision of a Designated Medical Practitioner. You are encouraged to utilise
your practice experiences in your learning and assignment activities. The work has
a very practical emphasis, and you are expected to be able to apply the results of
your work to optimise medicines management as a pharmacist prescriber in training.